Statue of Shiva from West Bengal, 1100. The vertical third eye and matted hair are typical features of the Hindu deity – his face on the right represents benevolence, on the left fierce protectiveness, and in the center his serenity – when this universal aspect of Shiva is emphasized his title is “Sadashiva.” From the […]
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The Hindu Goddess Durga was the original demon-slayer. As this sandstone carving made about 750 CE (from India) shows, she has a multitude of weapons that help her take down her opponents – in this case, the buffalo-demon Mahishasuramardini. The legend goes that the buffalo demon – who represents ignorance – was destroying the whole
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This terracotta figure of a merchant dates from seventh-to-eighth century Tang China and is testimony to the role of long-distance trade along the Silk Road and other conduits. I also think this guy looks like Dr. Strange, so there’s that.
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The scholar-elite class of dynastic China were not always engrossed in studying or affairs of state. This gourd with ivory-carved lid held live crickets, who were set to fight in staged cricket matches for the amusement of the Chinese intelligentsia. From 19th-century Qing China, the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
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Kite flying was first recorded in Ancient China. Among the earliest accounts includes a story of the famed general Han Xin (d. 196 BCE), one of the most important leaders to establish China’s influential and long-lasting Han Dynasty. Desiring to tunnel under a city wall he was trying to conquer, Han Xin figured out the
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Western History has no corner in the market for crazy leaders, as the example of Gao Yang (aka the Emperor Wenxuan) shows. Ruling for only nine years (r. 550-559 CE) in the tumultuous and short-spanned Northern Qi Dynasty, Gao Yang would have given Nero a run for his money. Known for his narcissistic, unpredidictable, and
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This mother chimpanzee is using stones to crack open a nut, as a child watches and learns. The skill-level needed for this operation is difficult (finding the right anvil-shaped stone, using another proper-sized stone to bang, learning how to position the nut, etc), and it will be until the young chimp is about six before
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Malaria has been an extraordinary shaper of history. Dated as far back as 30 million years old, this protoza really took off after the agricultural revolution (not surprising, since it thrives in mosquitos, who love the standing waters that frequently accompany cleared out lands). Some scientists believe Malaria to be the single-biggest killer in human
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Ching Shih might have been the most powerful and successful pirate in history. Born in 1775, she was brought up as a prostitute in the wanning years of the Qing Dynasty. As the ability of the central government to provide stability dissolved, ad-hoc mafia-esque alliances among profiteers arose, and piracy proved to be one of
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These two lovebirds are Shiva and the Goddess Bhairavi, from an exquisite painting dating from the Mughal Dynasty in India, c. 1630-35. Today’s yoga practices are very anesthetized relative to the ways undertaken by yogis, particularly in the left-handed Tantric tradition. The two figures dwell in the charnel grounds – you can see the smoky
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Painted on a silk scroll by the 18th-century Japanese artist Maruyama Okyo, this image is one of Japan’s most well-known artistic creations. _The Ghost of Oyuki_, as it is known, was painted when the artist Okyo awoke from his sleep to see the ghost, or _yurei_, of his deceased lover. She had pale skin, disheveled
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Ghost stories have been an important part of China’s culture for centuries. As shown from this 14th-century Yuan Dynasty tomb, beliefs about ghosts can be seen in the visual arts, as well as in written sources. One of the most prominent types of undead spirits were the “Jiang Shi,” which were zombie-like reanimated beings. The
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In the far north-eastern part of China, the beautiful but deeply inhospitable Flaming Mountains lie. Travellers going across the Silk Road in ancient history avoided this area, skirting south to parts of the desert that contained waterholes and vegetation. The Turpan Oasis was one of these (see second photo), and it was in this region
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This is an ink portrait of the famed Chinese demon-hunter Zhong Kui. It was done by the Shunzhi Emperor Fulin in the mid 17th-century, and the fact that a Chinese ruler would find such a hero compelling enough to paint testifies to the importance of Zhong Kui’s legends. In myths stretching back as far as
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Here you see a ginormous “Foo Dog,” as the guardian lions of Chinese architecture are known in the West. These statues began to flank the entrances to homes of the elite during the Ming and Qing Dynasties (14th-20th c). Standing for strength and power, they appear in pairs, with the left lioness (as indicated by
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You are looking at a sixteenth-century Japanese scroll showing pictures of “tsukumogami:” discarded household items that become angry at their lack of use and turn into animated demons. My favorite story from this genre of folk tales comes from another sixteenth-century work known as the Sufuku-ji scrolls. It begins with a haunting warning about how
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Here’s a story for you: the oldest recorded story we know of, in fact. This smudgy cave painting made international headlines last December when scientists in Indonesia reported the discovery of a panel measuring about 14 feet depicting a hunting narrative — this picture is a detail. Dating the mineral deposits atop the pictures, which
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In the centuries before China was unified as an empire, petty kingdoms and warlords struggled for influence in a centuries-long diplomatic chess game. The bells shown here from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BCE) might have been owned by wealthy aristocrats engaged in such manuvers, and used for ceremonial importance, which would have
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This image of the famous ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi (aka Lao Tzu) dates to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and shows the semi-legendary Lao Tzu as an old man, peacefully riding atop a bull. It is a fitting image for one of the most famous figures in the history of Doaism/Taoism, which emphasizes cultivating an ability
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Human evolution shows that Homo Sapiens evolved physical features suitable to long-distance running. About two million years ago, the east African landscape entered a drying period, and many forested lands turned into grasslands or patchy open woodlands. These conditions would have favored our ancestors’ development of characteristics that could run after animals and scavenge prey
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